Panikkar- The Path, Milta-Manifestation

...it seems, just as there are so many different people and perspectives on just this little list who choose to come together on the basis of spirituality and even to encounter Christ in this myriad of different ways, is indicative of the "phania" or manifestation(s) of Christ that Pannikar is alluding to.

In the Greek/English tradition of the Bible, John 1.1, has been rendered, " In the beginning was the Word (logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Somehow, as Pannikar alludes to, it is the logos or word that has taken precedence in Christianity. Logos gives the impression of a single "word" being spoken to us from God; and this word has been reduced even to a book, the Bible, as THE Word of God. The Bible for many has become an idol and in our attempts to be true to the divine call (orthodoxy), we have ignored the mysticism of Jesus Christ; and even the mystical essence of Christ.

However, in the Aramaic translations of scripture from the Peshitta texts, the word in John 1.1 is not "logos" but "milta" which gives a broader range of meaning, such as, "‘Word’, "Sound", ‘Manifestation’, ‘Instance’ or ‘Substance, (I believe I even read somewhere it may be translated as "light"), etc., which may be rendered,

"In the beginning [of creation]
there was the Manifestation (milta);
And that Manifestation was with God;
and God was [the embodiment of] that Manifestation."

This idea of phania or milta as a divine emanation, manifestation, substance, reminds me of a yoga practice (I forget the name of it just now) where you gently cover your eyes, nose, lips, and ears with your fingers and thumbs, and listen and feel the interior hum within ourselves. Its kind of like listening to the sound of the ocean through a conch shell, except more of a hum. You can hear and feel this gentle hum or what the Hindu's call the "Aum" or "Om" which is the sound of God or sound of creation. "Om Nade Ishvara Vanamah" (Praise to God's Sound of Creation. Alleluia!). When they chant the "Aum" it vibrates up and down the three resonance chambers of the body (head, chest, and abdomen), it begins and ends with "Aum", from birth to death. It's about resonance and vibration. All of energy, even light vibrates (think of waves, etc.). There is something to be said here about the Yoga of Sound or in the Christian tradition, the spirituality of sound, such a chanting. Cynthia Bourgeault alludes to this in some of her books, especially the one on chanting the psalms.

Perhap the Path of Phania is simply about this Divine Manifestation, The Christ, and our becoming in tune with the divine resonance. As Panikkar says, its about experience- Christ's Experience of th Divine, Our Experience of Christ, and Our Experience of the mystical:

"One can concentrate on the individual (historical) Jesus and come to the conclusion that “he is the Way,” or on the person of Jesus and exclaim, “You are the Truth,” or go still deeper into the adhyatmic level and discover the Christ and realize that “You are the Life.” The third is the mystical experience that we have to appropriate if we wish to experience what Jesus experienced, namely, the reality of the Christ".